by Dane Egli and Jared McKinney , USATODAY

by Dane Egli and Jared McKinney , USATODAY

Killing 117 Americans and causing more than $50 billion in economic damages, Hurricane Sandy was the worst hurricane to hit the northeastern U.S. in 40 years and the second-costliest ever. But it will not be the last of its kind. Mayor Bloomberg of New York, for one, has recognized this and has proposed investing $20 billion to help prepare New York City for the disasters of the future.

Bloomberg's proposal reflects reality: storms will come. By preparing for the disasters of the future, he hopes to reduce their human toll and economic cost. The numbers support such an investment: similar efforts elsewhere have saved $4 for every $1 spent. This is the approach of the statesman: not just rebuilding after a disaster and restoring the status quo, but seeking to shape a better future through long-term planning and investment. Such thinking - what Bloomberg calls resilience - is right for New York, and it is right for the nation.

Resilience is the ability to withstand a crisis, absorb damage, recover quickly and adapt to disruptive events. It requires long-term planning, investment, and leadership. And it is "disaster agnostic" -- resilience mitigates damage caused by earthquakes and terrorists alike. Hence, resilience is an investment both in national security and economic prosperity.

Resilience is crucial because of climate change: higher sea levels threaten coastal communities with unprecedented flooding. New York City's post-Sandy study concluded that infrequent "once-in-a-century" storms are likely to occur more frequently, adversely affect more Americans and cause exponentially more economic damage. Hurricane Sandy was at the time considered a once-in-70-year "loss event."The projected impact of climate change could make Sandy a once-in-50-year disaster by mid-century. Further, rising sea levels and bigger storms could increase economic damages close to fivefold - in the case of a Sandy-like hurricane, an estimated $19 billion in damages to New York City would increase to $90 billion. Without resilience, the storms of the future will exact extraordinary costs.

Resilience is also the right way to prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks. As was tragically demonstrated in Boston earlier this year, some terrorist attacks will not be prevented. Acknowledging this reality, we can plan to mitigate the damage and ensure that our response supports true recovery. During such traumatic events as 9/11 and the Boston marathon attacks, America's tendency is to "secure the crime scene." Ports, airports, and indeed whole communities are closed in an effort to restore control. But such responses, though well-intentioned, tend to amplify the original impact of the crisis, increasing its economic disruption and even encouraging similar attacks in the future. By increasing security while maintaining commerce, resilience helps reduce the terror of terrorism, deters future attacks and avoids self-inflicted wounds.

Even without a changing climate and terrorist threats, this would still be the right time to invest in resilience. America's critical infrastructure is eroding. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, adequately maintaining US infrastructure will require an additional $1.1 trillion by 2020. Without this additional funding, transportation delays, blackouts, water main breaks and reduced competitiveness are projected by 2020 to cost $3.1 trillion in GDP and threaten 3.5 million jobs. Rebuilding is an economic necessity that presents a tremendous opportunity: when we rebuild and repair, we must do so smartly - thinking resiliently. That means constructing bridges and dams with structural reinforcements and redundancies, putting critical power lines underground and helping essential facilities like water treatment plants become more energy-sustainable.

A changing climate, natural disasters, the persistent threat of terrorist attacks and the degraded state of America's infrastructure demand a framework that rethinks the current posture of simply fixing things when they break. Communities, businesses and public leaders should seek to understand the current state of American infrastructure by mapping interdependencies and planning to sustain or quickly restore critical functions when disasters occur. Bigger-picture, new market incentives need to be developed to encourage long-term investment in hazard mitigation and recovery. Critical infrastructure is a public good - something that society expects to be there, like clean air and homeland security - and making it more resilient will require information sharing and collaboration across public-private barriers that currently separate businesses and policymakers.

Making America more resilient will require greater awareness, resolve and incentives. And it will require enlightened leadership. But systematically integrated into our social fabric, resilience will yield significant improvements in both physical security and economic prosperity, allowing us to face the storms of the future.

Dr. Dane Egli is senior adviser, national security strategies at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the author of Beyond the Storms: Strengthening Homeland Security and Disaster Management to Achieve Resilience (forthcoming). Jared McKinney is a graduate student in defense and strategic studies at Missouri State University.